James BlakeVerified account

Hey folks, I need your help. There's a bad situation right now with Trump's Department of Health and Human Services. First, I'm going to tell you what happened, and then, I'm going to tell you what we can all do about it immediately. (thread)

Just before Thanksgiving, Trump and Pence proposed a federal regulation through the Department of Health and Human Services that would allow ALL programs receiving federal funding to discriminate against anyone who goes against their religious beliefs. What does that mean?

That means any program getting money from HHS would be allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ people, religious minorities, and women in programs related to foster care, adoption, HIV and STI prevention, refugee resettlement, elder care programs, and more.

Trump and Pence have already announced that they will not enforce existing non-discrimination requirements regarding sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and sex in programs that receive federal funding where protection isn't technically required.

If this proposed regulation is approved, it would give HHS programs a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities, and any other marginalized community -- and yet, they will still receive taxpayer funds while they do it.

Your taxpayer money will be used to fund programs in which LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities, and other vulnerable people are discriminated against for "religious" reasons. That's unacceptable, and there's something we can do about it.

Every proposed federal regulation comes with a comment period, in which the public is permitted to formally offer their opinion. This comment period is 30 days. It ends on Thursday, Dec. 19th -- they did this intentionally to sneak it in under the holiday season.